Entering Malawi, all i knew was that it was one of the poorest countries yet hosted some of Africa's friendliest people. It only takes an hour in Malawai before you realise the latter is true.
Walking across the border into another country is always fun because you dont know whats waiting on the other side. Especially when the border we were going through was in the middle of no where. We got the passports stamped and a little money exchanged and hitched a ride with a local guy to the nearest town of distinction, Karonga. The journey there was quite eventful and started off with us hitting a huge dog only ten minutes in. It snapped a huge chunk of the drivers bumper which was unfortunate but when your driving at 120kph down a road scattered with people and animals maybe you should take a little more care. Then, 10 minutes after, we were driving along when another guy in the car flagged down an amubulance driving past. He ran over and started talking to them then jumped in the ambo and took off. I asked what just happened and found out that the man was on his way to see his son in the Karonga hospital but the ambulance driver informed him his son just died. Very positive beginning to the start of our time in Malawi.
In Karongs, we were dropped off at the mini bus stand to take local transport to Nkhata Bay, the town we were staying that night. Not a very exciting thing, but i thought i should take the time to describe local transport so you can appreciate it a little more. All throughout Africa, the main form of local transport is mini buses. In Kenya they are called Matatus, Tanzania calls them Dalla Dallals, Malawi Matolas and Mozambique Chapas. They are basically a mini bus which has enough tiny little seats for 15 people. Sounds squishy huh? Well 15 people is extremely comfortable. There were times when we had almost 30 people inside, not to mention all the bags, boxes, chickens, screaming babies and whatever else they squeeze in. They drive like maniacs, passing through villages with children on the side of the road and all they do is fly through holding down the horn expecting everyone to jump out of the way. It is extremely dangerous, but also very cheap and most of the time the only option.
Let me TRY and describe the countryside to you. Malawi runs alongside Lake Nyassa (Lake Malawi). On one side of the lake is Tanzania, which hosts a shoreline less inhabited due to its mountainous range stretching for hundreds of kilometres. To a lesser extent, the Malawi side of the lake consists of hills and mountains which hosts some of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. To one direction, you have a view over the lush valleys filled with forests only interrupted by banana, coffee and tea plantations. To the other direction, you have the bright blue Lake malawi sitting below the Tanzanian mountains in the background. The road passes up and along these hills and provides a beautiful, scenic drive through mountain top villages with thatched hutts and waving children. I would love to go back and travel along these roads in my own car stopping at every view point to admire the unspoilt land scape.
After passing through Mzuzu, and changing Matolas, we were coming to the end of our 6 hour butt torturing drive across pot hole ridden roads in suspensionless vehicles. But you soon forget about the butt pain (and the chicken we ran over) as you begin to descend in to Nkhata Bay. The area consists 3 small bays with outstretched points with the town nestled mainly around the middle bay. Nkhata Bay is a hot spot for Malawi tourism, but it is not nearly as touristy as i thought, thankfully. We stayed at a spectacular backpackers, the best i have ever stayed at, called Mayoka Village. Depsite the alcoholic owner, this place is absolutely fantastic and innovative with cool features like compost toilets, wood fire heated hot water and a shower with a view over the lake. Even the toilet provides a beautiful view for you to enjoy as you... do your thing.
The Nkhata Bay township, to me, seemed like a great set up for both locals and tourists. The hotels and hostels are all a 5-10 minute walk from the town, which gives the locals the space to live their day to day lives and gives the tourists easy access to a great local fishing village.
All the books have said Malawi is one of the poorest countries, but you would not think that in this town, or in any of the towns we had passed through that day. There are a lot more roads and villages with structure and layout. The housing is a lot better with less clay hutts and more stone houses with maintained yards. Maybe they are a poor nation, but they take a lot more pride in the appearance of their country. And all the local 'beach boys' as they are called, dress well in tight fitting t-shirts accompanied by beach shorts and rasta dreads. Oh the boys love their rasta. But beware, they are all selling something and are very good at persuading you to spend money. And if you get friendly enough, one of them may even ask you to marry him so he can move back to your country and live a better life. It is a sad thing seeing a local boy explain to a white girl that she is his ticket to freedom and without her he will never be able to leave a life of poverty. Im sure they have convinced a few girls too, which is a scary thought as 1 in 6 Malawians have HIV.
We got to Nkhata Bay in time for the Captain Davey's 'Full Moon Party'. He picked us up from the hostel in his boat and promised us a great night which got me pumped for some good times. First though, he had to pick up 15 other people from another hostel. Sweet i thought, that will make a good party. Turns out the 15 other people were an extremely annoying Indian family, plus one very cool Portugese guy, Paulo. Ah well, there was 3 of us and a bunch of local guys, thats enough. After a little cliff jumping and bongo playing in the boat, Davey dropped us off at Chizi Beach and whipped us up a little fruit punch before taking off. The fruit punch was a mix of coke, fanta, sprite (mmm, tasty mix) with what they call 'spirit'. Not vodka, not whiskey, not rum, just 'spirit'. It comes in a oil drum and tastes like death. And when the coke fanta and sprite ran out, they mixed it with beer. Thankfully, Davey returned a couple hours later with about 20 more backpackers just in time to get dragged to a local village by about 30 of the cutest kids i have ever seen. They all took us to their village to meet their parents and see their house before taking us back to the beach. This is where the poverty was really noticeable. The village relied on fishing to survive. But unfortunately, there had been a storm recently and no fish were being caught. Which means they had no food to eat and no fish to sell to make money. It was becoming a desperate situation. Yet despite this, they were so happy, and extremely friendly. They didnt ask us for money, they didnt try to get our sympathy. They just wanted to shake our hands and stutter out the few english words they knew to find out our names and where we were from. It was a beautiful place, with beautiful people.
After the full moon had risen, the bongo drumming session had ended and the booze ran out, Davey dropped us off at a hostel where we chatted with the locals and had a beer before heading back to our hostel. This was the funniest memory i had from Nkhata Bay. We were heading back with 3 local boys and their dog Yuka. Yuka is a MASSIVE muscly dog, but extremely friendly... to us. But on the walk back to town he attacked 3 people. One guy tried to roll under a car to get away and came out bleeding. It was scary, but not. He was a happy playful dog with us, but as soon as he saw someone walking past in a dark place he would pounce and attack until the boys managed to calm him down. Then, we finally got to town and the boys were going to a bar whilst Hana and I had a 5 minute walk to go so Yuka's owner said "Take Yuka. He will guide you. But DO NOT let him into the hostel" "Ah no no, thats fine, Im pretty sure Yuka will attack us or someone else and we wont know what to do" "Dont worry my friends. Yuka likes you. He knows your smell. It is fine" "Ahhh... ok" i replied with a quivering date. Thankfully, he happily strolled by our side problem free. Phew.
The rest of our time in Nkhata Bay consisted of relaxing and also hanging out with the locals, and non locals we knew at a party at Kayapapaya Restaurant. This is where, at the same time, Hana got proposed to and i got hit on by a prostitute. Despite this, it was a great night and awesome hanging out with the locals who are absolutely amazing, funny and friendly. I had 5 of the best days of my life here, and i will neber forget it.
Sitting in the back of the pick up of the owner of the hostel we stayed at, we headed next to Kande Beach to meet some of Hana's friends. We stayed 3 nights here which was far too long. It is a popular stop for overland safaris, and great if you want to isolate yourself away from the local people. It is a huge gated compound which makes you forget there is a world outside. the only thing i did here was my laundry... which was well over due. But we did meet a bunch of friendly people on safari (the name of the company will remain secret to protect the jobs of the staff) who we hitch a ride with to the next destination, Selima Bay. We felt like intruders sitting up in their fancy safari truck invading their holiday, but they were more than happy to have some fresh faces on the trip and even lent us one of their tents that night. They were such great people we even caught a ride with them to Lilongwe the next day where we stayed for 2 nights with them eating dinner and as if we were part of their group. Despite the awkward feeling of being an intruder, I had a lot of fun with these guys and they almost coaxed us to join them on safari for the next 2 weeks.
Lilongwe is situated off the lake in the southern part of Malawi. it is the capital city but doesnt have much more to offer other than a couple markets and a chance to treat yourself on things like hair cuts, fancy food and big supermarkets. Although not the xleanest of cities, Lilongwe is nice enough and the people are friendly. There is the rich and the poor and not a lot in between, like Nairobi. I still find it hard to believe that Malawi is poorer than countries like Kenya and Tanzania who all seemed to be worse off than Malawians. I think it has something to do with the pride of the Malawi people. Less litter, yards are well kept, clothes are nicer, people are friendlier and more active. But maybe the real desperate areas are hidden away from the tourist circuit.
The next destination was still unknown. We desperately wanted Mozambique, but you need to organise your visas in advance and as it was a saturday, it means we would not get to Malawi until Wednesday at the earliest. Or, we could jump on the safari for the next 2 weeks. As tempting as it was, backpacking is more fun then a pre-organised trip with no freedom of choice as to where you go. So after chatting with the hosetl owner, we decided to risk it and head 80km south to the Malawi/Mozambique border and hope we can get visas there.
So off we went in another matola jam packed with people heading south to the 'boda boda'. We got to the closest stop to the border around 12pm and asked for further directions from a police officer. He was a kind man and walked with us for a km to the road from where we got picked up by a drunk driver (who, instead of dodging it, ran over a dead dog) and sped us at a crazy speed to the border which is where we hit our first problem. Visas need to be paid for with US $. we had none. Not even a quarter. And we needed $30 each. We asked the Malawi customs officer if there was anywhere we coul exchange cash and he rang his friend, a black market money exchanger, to come help us out. Dodgy. And to make it dodgier, the customs guy let us sit in his office, at his desk, while we did the illegal black market cash swap. Which brings us to problem number 2. The US$100 he gave us was a fake. But, beggars cant be choosers. It was our only hope. So we gave it a go, and after an hour of waiting for the Mozambique customs officers try and figure out how to issue a visa, the countefeit note got us into the beautiful Portugese country of Mozambique.
